Jonckheere was a Belgian motor

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Co ...

and

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

builder, founded in 1881 by Henri Jonckheere in

Roeselare Roeselare (; french: Roulers, ; West Flemish: ''Roeseloare'') is a Belgian city and municipality in the Flemish province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the city of Roeselare proper and the towns of Beveren, Oekene and Rumbeke. The ...

History

In 1881, Henri Jonckheere began to build horse-drawn carriages in the village of Beveren, near

in the province of

West Flanders ) , settlement_type = Province of Belgium , image_flag = Flag of West Flanders.svg , flag_size = , image_shield = Wapen van West-Vlaanderen.svg , shield_size = , image_map ...

, Belgium. In 1902 Jonckheere build his first "luxury automobile". In those days many, largely wooden bodies with their typical styling, were built upon several famous chassis such as Minerva and

Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...

. In 1922 Henri's son and successor Joseph Jonckheere built his first bus body. Car bodies were still a large part of the production until the early 1930s when Jonckheere moved all of the production to bus and coach building, making Jonckheere the Belgian market leader. Jonckheere was also becoming a famous and well-known name throughout

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, there was a huge need for vehicles for road transport, which included of course a lot of buses and coaches. Jonckheere was able to quickly meet all new market trends. The product range also included luxury touring coaches, city and intercity buses,

articulated bus An articulated bus, also referred to as a banana bus, bendy bus, tandem bus, vestibule bus, wiggle wagon, stretch bus, or an accordion bus, (either a motor bus or trolleybus) is an articulated vehicle used in public transportation. It is usua ...

es but also heavy duty buses for worldwide export and several special bodies. In the 1970s, Jonckheere launched the ''Bermuda'' range that started to appear in the United Kingdom in 1977 and stayed in production until 1982. Jonckheere celebrated its first century in 1981 with a touring coach with the appropriate name of ''Jubilee''. The range included a low floor P35 model, regular P50/P599 model, P799 with underfloor cockpit, P90 semi-decker with rear lounge, the P95 with an underfloor drivers cab and a rear lounge and P99 double decker. In 1989, Jonckheere launched the ''Deauville'' range and in 1994 came the ''Monaco'' double deck model. In 1996, the ''Mistral'' touring coach model was launched (in two heights Mistral 50 and 70). The Mistral remained in production until 2007 when it was replaced by the SH series. In 1994 Jonckheere became a part of the Berkhof Group which was subsequently acquired by

VDL Groep VDL Groep is an international industrial and manufacturing company established in 1953. From its head office in Eindhoven, Netherlands, VDL supervises its subsidiaries, which have a high level of autonomy and responsibility for results. The bus a ...

in 1998. The official name of Jonckheere was then changed to VDL Jonckheere. A new high-specification coach was launched in Europe. The SH-series was initially available on the rear-engined

Volvo B12B The Volvo B12B was a rear-engined coach and intercity bus chassis built by Volvo. It is built as a direct replacement of Volvo B12 in the European market and the Volvo B10B. The B12B could be fitted with Volvo DH12C (later DH12D and DH12E) 6- ...

chassis. The demonstration model was built to a height of 3.8m. The body was also built on the

Volvo B12M The Volvo B12M is an underfloor mid-engined bus/ coach chassis introduced by Volvo Buses in 2002 as a replacement for the Volvo B10M. It is available with a variety of bodies such as the Van Hool T9 Alizee, Sunsundegui Sideral and Plaxton Panther ...

and

Volvo B9R The Volvo B9R is a rear-engined coach chassis built by Volvo. It can be built with bodies up to long and a maximum gross weight of . The B9R is equipped with a rear-mounted Volvo 9.0-litre 6-cylinder diesel engine under the floor, producing and ...

. Longer 14 metre versions were added to the range on the Volvo B12BT and B13R chassies. In 2010 VDL Jonckheere was subsumed by

VDL Bus & Coach VDL Bus & Coach is a Netherlands based bus manufacturer. It is an amalgamation of several bus building companies within the VDL Groep. VDL Bus & Coach has manufacturing plants in Belgium and the Netherlands. By 2018 VDL Bus & Coach sold 500 elect ...

Products

* Bermuda * Jubilee * Deauville * Monaco * Arrow 30, 50, 70 * Mistral 30, 50, 70 * SHV * JHV * Modulo

External links

*
Official website
{{Authority control Bus manufacturers of Belgium Companies based in West Flanders Roeselare VDL Groep Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1881 2010 disestablishments in Belgium Belgian companies established in 1881